Advice on painting/dechroming/vinyl wrapping front grille?

That is a big variable that most people should consider. The color of the paint and its exposure to environmental elements definitely will make to hard to match the paint. I would probably sat black sand pearl #206 would be a nice touch. I used the same black whilst painting a friends front valence on his Tacoma a few months ago.

 

Duplicolor paint pen. It comes with a clearcoat too. My prep and application wasn't great either but the rust was pulled out and it isnt awful so i can deal.

 

What primer do you use, and do you sand everything or just all chrome off? And get the toyota black sand pearl spray? Do you take the emblem off and do it separate? Also, whats flash dry?

 

I used to mix different brands of primer but I try to plan ahead and purchase all of the aerosol based products I need from the same place. It ensures consistency between parts and helps consolidating shipping costs haha. I believe the chrome is just paint. You don't necessarily have to sand the entirety of the chrome off but just the clear coat. I would disassemble any intricate parts before painting but that is just my personal preference. Flash dry - I may have been fancy with the wording but not a full 24/48 hour dry between coats (or sanding between). I tend to let coats dry just enough so adhesion between layers is strong. I rarely take more than an 1hr - 1.5hrs painting and leave the the piece to dry and gas out for at least a few days.

My suggestion is to hand off the piece to someone and rid yourself of the headache. If you are adamant about diy'ing and learning something in the process, youtube and google have a myriad of resources and professionals that show you how to paint correctly.

 

The problem isn't so much my abilities to paint, I've done a fair amount of paintwork in the past. More trying to decide if a vinyl wrap would be feasible on the frame of the grill. Matching isn't of any concern, as I'll use the same matte black as I did on the badges. Trying to get info on durability of 2-stage rattle can vs. vinyl, I don't really want to be masking off the center parts of the grille all the time. Thanks for the input everyone!

 

I have been kicking arounf the idea of vinyl wrapping the grill in brushed alloy pattern. Only really would be doing the crome frame, but still....

 

exactly what I was planning on doing, but matte black. Leave the center part as it is and wrap the chrome part. Just doesn't look right to me on an OR to have black mirrors, handles, badges and a chrome grille. Thought about doing the rear bumper in matte black as well, but with the TRD beadlock wheels I can live with it, and I don't think the wrap would hold up all that well with me driving gravel during pheasant season.

 

I wasnt questioning your ability at all, I apologize if that is how my post rubbed off. Honestly at the end of the day its personal preference. Many of the trucks on this thread look great, vinyl or paint. As long as it is done with some TLC I think either will be a great option. I just prefer a more "permanent" finish but can see the upside to using vinyl as well.

 

Gotcha, no problem man. I'm just torn between being able to revert it to OEM or not, I gather that the '11 honeycomb grille is a fairly rare part, and I'm sort of considering doing a satoshi mod, but not sure I'd get to it anytime soon, or ever ha. Too bad it's not metal, I have access to a powdercoating setup and that would be pretty tough.

 

Oops...

 

So I've decided to go with SEM Trim Black and sand/paint. I've had good luck with the stuff in the past, I'll post up pictures when I get it done.